


Moonlight

by EzzyDean



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-07 23:44:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyDean/pseuds/EzzyDean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Haru couldn’t even follow his own mind so he didn’t expect anyone else to be able to even begin to decipher his drunken leaps of thought.  So when the stranger smiled down at him and answered he was stunned - and not just because of the alcohol in him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have seen a distinct lack of fanfic for certain pairings. This must be fixed.

The party itself was nothing to write home about he decided as he picked up another drink.  Not that he had anyone to write home to or anything like that anyway, he mused as he looked around for his friends, so him using that saying even in his mind was kind of silly.  An irritated sigh slipped from his lips and he headed outside and took a seat beneath the tree in the backyard.  At least out here it was quiet.  He’d much rather be completely alone than stuck in a room with a bunch of people he didn’t know and couldn’t talk to.

He was only here because Rin had insisted.  It was a party being thrown by a friend of a friend of a friend or something like that and Rin had felt that it would be good for Haru to get out for once.  

“Be among other living beings for a crazy change of pace you damn recluse” is how Rin had ever so delicately phrased it that afternoon.  Haru hadn’t wanted to go but once Rin got Mako and Gou on his side it had been impossible to say no.  So he had let himself be drug along and handed multiple glasses of various kinds of alcohol as he pretended to listen to whatever anyone was chattering at him about.  He happily accepted the drinks because if he was going to be stuck with a bunch of strangers being contentedly numb was the only way to go about it.

Haru wasn’t entirely sure how many drinks he had finished or what time it was.  All he knew is that each time he wandered inside to replenish his empty glass there were fewer and fewer people and that it was getting colder each time he went back outside.  Not that either fact really bothered him since he didn’t know any of the people anyway and the stars were relaxing to look at no matter the temperature.  

He flopped onto his back as gracefully as he could muster and stared up towards the sky.  His view of the stars was blocked by the tree this time so he settled for staring at the way the moonlight threw shadows across the leaves and branches.

He wondered if it was maybe the moonlight that was making him feel so light and heavy all at once.  A breeze ruffled the leaves and he smiled.  It sounded like they were trying to tell him a secret.  It wasn’t until a heavy weight settled on his chest that he even realized he had closed his eyes.  So he opened them again.

Someone was laying on their stomach beside him, had crossed their arms on Haru’s chest, and was now gazing down at him.  When he noticed that Haru’s eyes had opened the stranger smiled.  “Everyone else is gone.  I figured I should see if you were still alive out here.”  His words were slurring slightly but he spoke slow enough that Haru had no problem understanding him.

“Everyone?”  Haru’s tongue felt heavy in his mouth and he swallowed a couple times.  “What about,” he paused, trying to remember who drug him here, “uh, Rin?”  He had forgotten who brought him.  Apparently he had drank a bit more than he thought.  Not that it mattered.

“Just you and me here now.”  The stranger smiled at him again, he really had a nice smile Haru decided, and settled his chin just above where his arms were crossed on Haru’s chest.  After concentrating on Haru for a moment the stranger spoke.  “You have really nice eyes.  Did you know that?”  His eyes met the dark pair staring at him behind red frames and then dropped to the other’s lips.

“You have a nice smile.  I wonder if it tastes like moonlight.”  Sometimes Haru couldn’t even follow his own mind so he didn’t expect anyone else to be able to even begin to decipher his drunken leaps of thought.  So when the stranger smiled down at him and answered he was stunned - and not just because of the alcohol in him.

“Only if yours tastes like the stars will mine taste like moonlight.”  Haru smiled at the man lying on his chest and then gently patted his head.

“I think I’m drunk.”

“That’s okay.  I am too.”

“I wanna taste moonlight.”  The stranger smiled at him and Haru felt his breath catch for a moment.  He really was sure that smile would let him know what moonlight tasted like.

“Then let’s give you a taste.”  Haru closed his eyes as the other man’s lips pressed softly against his.  He slipped his tongue along the other man’s lower lip eager to taste and sighed happily when he parted his lips.  Haru truly felt like he was lapping up moonlight out of the other’s mouth.  His fingers tingled and his cheeks flushed as the other man took control of the kiss and met Haru’s tongue with his own.

* * *

 

Rei hadn’t agreed to have the party at his place for any other reason than because it would quiet Nagisa.  The fact that he could keep an eye on Nagisa and therefore lessen the possibility of repeating the hamburger burglar fiasco of the past summer was just a bonus.  Also, unlike Nagisa, he hadn’t had any expectations of finding someone to leave with.  First of all leaving with someone would be ridiculous since the party was at his own home.  Secondly he wasn’t looking for a relationship.

“Neither am I.”  Nagisa had laughed as he draped himself across Rei’s lap that afternoon.  “I just want someone to sleep with a few times and pamper me a bit.”  He had, at the time, felt that Nagisa’s rather lax desires for the outcome of his night had been, well, distasteful.

But when he had seen Nagisa dart away that night to latch onto a redhead who had just came in he had to admit that the easy manner they had with each other made him feel a touch jealous.  Until he spotted the black haired man who entered just behind the redhead.  Then he kind of stopped thinking and feeling anything for a moment.  There had been something about his dark blue eyes that captured Rei.

Unfortunately he had lost track of the stranger and his friends before Nagisa could rope them into introductions.  He spent most of the night trying to keep everyone from making too big of a mess - he knew he’d be the one stuck cleaning it all up after all.  But it was increasingly difficult to keep track of who was doing what because every time he put down his empty glass he quickly found a new full one in his hands.  

It was obviously Nagisa’s doing but he was, for the most part, enjoying the heaviness blanketing his limbs from whatever the blonde was mixing for him so he continued to drink whatever he was given.  Much to his delight he had spotted the black haired stranger passing through his kitchen from time to time but each time he made a move to try talking to him someone snagged Rei to ask him a question or, in Nagisa’s case, to wrap him in a tight hug and pepper his face with kisses until he extracted himself.

Finally everyone was gone and Rei stretched on his couch for a moment.  He had tried standing but keeping his balance was a bit more complicated than usual so he opted to just wait a couple more minutes before trying again.  It’s not like he had anywhere to be or anyone waiting for him.  That last thought sobered him ever so slightly and he got to his feet.  

He did not lurch to his feet for that was decidedly ungraceful.  But he may have wavered a little once rose to his full height.  Making his way to the kitchen he noted that while there was a mess it wasn’t completely unbearable.  He’d be able to sleep tonight without cleaning after all.  The back door was ajar and he peeked out into the cool night and spotted a body lying under the tree in his yard and he slipped outside as quietly as he could.

Looking down at the stranger he couldn’t help the smile that flitted across his lips.  There was just something about him that was so appealing to Rei he just wanted to curl up next to the man and bask in his presence.

So he did.

It was probably the alcohol still in his system that told him kissing a perfect stranger - and to his eyes the man underneath him was very much perfect - seemed like a completely logical action to take.  The feel of the man’s lips against his and the way his tongue licked the inside of Rei’s mouth pretty much wiped out all coherent thought that he might have been able to muster.


	2. Morning Sun

They had made it from under the tree to the couch and Haru had lost his shirt.  But it didn’t matter because it had been replaced with soft kisses and gentle caresses that were somehow cool on his skin yet he felt like he was burning.  His skin felt like it was too small to contain everything inside of him and he sighed as warm lips pressed against his neck.  He was trying to remember what the other man had asked him but his mind was fuzzy.

Oh.  Right.  He had asked his name.  Kind of strange to be asking for his name when they were like this.  He didn’t realize he had spoken that thought until the lips on his neck parted and he felt a laugh vibrate across his skin.

“I admit that it is a little strange.  Then again this isn’t something that I normally do with someone whose name I don’t know.”  The man nuzzling his neck sat up a little and locked eyes with him.  “Must be because you taste like the stars.”  After a moment Haru smiled at him and Rei realized that the sight was breathtaking.

“Haru.”

“I’m Rei.”  There had been times growing up when he had been self-conscious about his feminine name but hearing it coming from Haru’s lips as Rei kissed his way across the other man’s chest and down his abs he couldn’t even begin to remember why.  Haru’s fingers gently pulled Rei’s glasses from his face and set them on the table beside the couch before returning to caress his face, thumbs sliding along flushed cheeks.

The way Haru was looking at him as though he was the most mysterious and important thing he had ever seen nearly did him in.  He had to drop his eyes and he focused on the rise and fall of Haru’s stomach under his fingertips instead.

 

At some point they had changed location to Rei’s bed and both of them had lost the rest of their clothes.  Normally Rei would have insisted on at least discarding them all in one spot or another but not tonight.  He was sure part of it was the alcohol he knew was still riding his system but most of it was Haru.  Every spot he touched seemed to ache for more and when he would catch Rei’s gaze with his own Rei felt like he was adrift at sea in those eyes.  Incredibly cliche, he thought, but that didn’t matter when Haru’s lips were pressing insistent kisses along his thigh and he was threading his fingers through Haru’s hair and practically begging him to come even closer.

When he felt Haru’s breath against his cheek he smiled.  It wasn’t that their bodies were perfectly made for each other or anything like that.  But there was a grace to Haru’s movements and sounds that simply made their connection exquisite.  It was a feeling he could wrap himself up in forever.

Or at least it was until he woke up the next morning, mouth full of cotton and head pounding even harder than his heart had during the climax of their actions last night.  The morning light shining through his window illuminated the dust floating and the man lying in bed next to him seemed to sparkle for a moment.  Until Rei’s stomach churned in a most distasteful way and he found himself paying his respects to his toilet bowl.  This was not how he had pictured spending the first free weekend he had been able to have in months.  But with a best friend like Nagisa he should probably be thankful that he was at least curled up around his own toilet and not stuck in some dilapidated shack on the beach.  Experiencing that particular night once was enough, thank you very much.

A cool hand brushed the back of his neck and he groaned as his stomach protested against him even being alive.  This was mortifying, Rei decided as he staggered to his feet.  His now red knees peeked out from under the oversized sleeping shirt he had pulled from the back of his closet last night and he studied the man who put out a steadying hand when he tilted to the side.  

Haru.  Even if bits of last night were hazy he wouldn’t forget that name.  Or the way his now almost lifeless eyes had sparkled and swam when Rei had ran his fingers along his abs and down into that dark patch of hair that was hidden now under a pair of boxers.

“Rei?”  He couldn’t quite tell if Haru was seeing how his name sounded while sober or if he was confirming that it was indeed his name.

“Yes, Haru?”  Rei grimaced as he tasted his mouth and Haru filled the glass next to the sink with water for him.  The other man seemed to be dealing with the morning much better than Rei was.

“Um.  Last night.”  Haru paused, seemingly unsure of what he wanted to say, and Rei’s mind scrambled to fill in the rest of the blanks.  He clearly remembered watching Haru enter and leave the house several times.  He vaguely remembered finding him under the tree and realizing he looked like a some kind of ethereal being lying in moonlight.  He definitely remembered the feel and taste of Haru’s body.  The way his back had arched and his calves had flexed.  Judging by the light blush on Haru’s cheeks he remembered some of last night as well.

But did he remember enough?  Or just the mild bits?  The parts where they had kissed under the tree and had tripped onto the bed and started giggling.

“Last night?”  Oh God this was mortifying and awkward and if Nagisa ever found out he would never hear the end of it.  “Guess we had a bit to drink, huh?  I don’t remember a lot of last night to be honest.”

Haru was pretty sure that Rei was lying at least a little.  But the situation was weird enough to begin with.  Doing that with someone who he had only known a couple hours?  While being so smashed that neither of them could walk properly without the other’s help?  He had really screwed things up.  Was this what Rin had planned when he drug Haru out to the party last night?  He took the glass back from Rei and rinsed it out before heading back towards the bed he had woken up in.  His head hurt and it was hard to focus on anything.

If Rei “didn’t remember” there was no reason for him to remember either.


	3. Chapter 3

The number of things that Rin had convinced or connived him into doing had only increased over the years once those two had gotten together.  Parties, parks, beaches; there was always someplace to go and someone he just had to meet.  The moment Rin had found happiness he had insisted on sharing it with his best friend.  Even if it meant shoving it down his unwilling throat.

Haru sighed as Rin stood over him, glaring down at his limp body.

“You know, if you keep this up you’re gonna die old and alone and a virgin.”

“Not that it really matters but I don’t mind being alone and I’m not a virgin.”  He rolled onto his side and stared out the window.

“You’re not?  Since when?”  Rin leaned over him and prodded his shoulder.  “Why don’t I know about this?”

“Because unlike you I don’t feel the need to flood my friends’ brains with every sordid detail of my life.”  The bed shifted as Rin sat down on the edge and Haru waited.  

He had been waiting a lot lately it seemed.  He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for but over the last couple years he had felt this growing sense of impatience building deep in his gut.  It was unusual for him.  He normally didn’t care what happened when as long as it didn’t get in the way of anything he was trying to do.

Maybe Rin was right.  Maybe he was lonely and needed to find someone.  Maybe that would stop the gnawing in his gut.  He had tried a few times.  Gone on a few dates.  But in the end it all seemed like a lot of effort.  Meeting new people.  Idle chit chat.  Trying to find things in common.  It was all so…

“Tiring.”

“What was that you just muttered?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously.  Just come out with us.  We’re just going out to a movie and then to Rei’s place.”  Moonlight shone behind Haru’s closed eyes and he let out a soft sigh.  

It’s not like he had ever forgotten Rei or what happened that night.  Even if they both had pretended they couldn’t remember that next morning.  But it seemed to make the gnawing in him double anytime he thought about it.  So he tucked it away in a corner of his mind, only fully remembering during those early morning hours when sleep eluded him.

“Fine.”  If nothing else going out with them would get Rin off his back for a few weeks at least.

 

The movie had gone well enough; no talking, no awkward silences.  Just the four of them enjoying the latest horror flick.  It had, obviously, been Nagisa’s choice and the blonde had been delighted with each and every shriek and crash from the speakers.  Rin and Haru were both interested enough and Rei had seemed to tolerate the choice.  Now they were back at Rei’s house lounging around and Haru knew by the look in Rin’s eyes that things were going to get personal.  

“So.  Good news, Nagsia.”  Rin leaned over Haru, who had somehow got stuck on the couch between him and Nagisa, and poked his boyfriend in the shoulder.  “My little boy’s all grown up apparently and you owe me a drink.”  Nagisa’s eyes lit up and he latched onto Haru’s arm.

“What?  You’re not a virgin anymore?  Since when?”  Rei chose that moment to come back from the kitchen and nearly dropped the refreshments he had brought back.  He made a slightly strangled noise that luckily no one seemed to hear and quickly arranged his features into a mask of mild indifference when Nagisa turned to him.  “This is cause for celebration!”

“Nagisa!  Really?”  The blonde shot past him and into the kitchen, digging through the fridge and cupboards looking for some kind of alcohol.  Not that he could find much.  Rei wasn’t a big alcohol person.  It didn’t sit well with him.  “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to me but you are being crude.  And loud.”

“What?”  Rei winced as Nagisa’s voice filled the kitchen and, as usual, was thankful he lived alone in this house and not in some apartment somewhere.  His friend would have gotten him kicked out of any apartment years ago.  “We’re just happy for him!  We figured that Haru would die an old shriveled man who had never experienced the joy of sex.”  He grudgingly followed Nagisa back to the living room with some glasses.  “At least you’ve had a boyfriend or two over the years.  Even if they’ve all been boring.”

“Well, not that anyone here cares, but it is my opinion that someone should choose to have sex when they feel comfortable with it.  And not because their friends are pressuring them into it.”  Rin passed each of them a glass and they toasted Haru’s loss of virginity.  Haru was pretty sure that Nagisa just wanted an excuse to try and get Rin drunk.  Those two had an exhibitionist streak when alcohol was involved and they both enjoyed teasing him with it.

“Yeah, but, here’s the thing.”  Nagisa tugged Rei towards the couch with a loud whisper.  “Haru isn’t too great with people.  He kinda sucks with dealing with them.”  The couch was not made to fit four people but that didn’t stop Nagisa from wedging Rei onto the couch between him and Haru, who had moved out of the middle and to the end.

“With friends like you two it’s no surprise.”  Rei muttered.  He felt more than heard Haru’s laugh and glanced over to him for a moment.

They had never really talked after that morning.  Even though their best friends had started dating and they saw each other from time to time.  It was always a causal hello, how are you, the weather’s been awfully cool lately, and then they went their own way.  It was awkward in the way that it wasn’t entirely awkward.  They had never gotten the chance to know each other these last few years and Rei always felt a sense of loss at the thought.

By the time Rin tipsily tripped out the door with an equally drunk but much more stable Nagisa by his side Rei was ready to just give up.  The two had been content to drink what little alcohol he had in the house and spend the time grilling him and Haru on a myriad of personal topics in the interest of strengthening their bond as friends.

“If we’re gonna be together forever we have to make sure our best friends are up to the task as well.”  Rin had stated carefully as Nagisa had slipped his hands under his boyfriend’s shirt with a giggle.

Rei had decided after that point that not looking directly at anyone speaking to him was a good choice and had spent most of the rest of the night watching his glass or staring out the window.

But now those two were gone and his house was peaceful again.  He stopped for a moment in the doorway of the living room and watched as Haru set all their glasses on the corner of the table.  He had almost forgotten the other man was here.  As much as he loved his friends they drained him.  They obviously were out of place in his neat home but Haru seemed to blend in.  Almost as if he had always been there.  

Haru looked over to him and Rei finally entered the room, sitting on the couch next to him.  The fact that Haru didn’t shy away or look uncomfortable made him happy.

“Just you and me here now.”  A spot of color tinted Haru’s cheek and Rei chuckled.  He knew that pretending not to remember that night had been a childish move but at least it appeared to be one they had both shared.  “Do those two make a habit of forgetting about you?”

Haru leaned back and sank into the couch cushions, head tilting towards Rei’s shoulder.  “Sometimes.  I’m pretty easy to forget.  I don’t talk a lot and I find quiet places to stay.”  Rei shifted and nudged Haru so his head fell onto Rei’s shoulder.

“You’re not that easy to forget.  Believe me.”  There wasn’t much alcohol in him this time around.  That meant that this feeling, this rush, was all Haru - and he was rather glad about that.

“Rei?”

“Yes, Haru?”

“I’m glad it was you.”  Haru whispered.  “You were my first and I got to taste moonlight.”

“Well I got to taste the stars so I’m honored.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Imagine your OTP getting very, very drunk and having sex for the first time, before becoming a couple - both enjoying it, but feeling immensely awkward about it as soon as they realize what happened, and both deciding to pretend - and convincing one another - that they blacked out and forgot the incident.
> 
> Now imagine them finally getting together after many failed and semi-failed relationships with others, when one night Person A whispers to Person B,"You know, I was always glad you were my first."


End file.
